Editorial: The Tsarnaevs’ welfare records

As details emerge about the family history of the two young men charged in the Boston Marathon bombings, one finding has sparked outrage in some quarters. During their 10 years living in Cambridge, the family, legal immigrants from Russia, sometimes received public assistance. Beacon Hill lawmakers, always eager to make themselves look relevant to a big story, are vowing to get to the bottom of it.

MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

Writer

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 1:15 AM

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 1:15 AM

» Social News

As details emerge about the family history of the two young men charged in the Boston Marathon bombings, one finding has sparked outrage in some quarters. During their 10 years living in Cambridge, the family, legal immigrants from Russia, sometimes received public assistance.

Beacon Hill lawmakers, always eager to make themselves look relevant to a big story, are vowing to get to the bottom of it.

“Clearly, if our public tax dollars were in any way used to help support the horrific, horrific events that occurred here, it is something that would appall all of us,” Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick) said Monday, as the House Post-Audit Committee, which he chairs, launched an investigation.

The state began its investigation by compromising its own privacy standards. People who apply for food stamps or unemployment insurance reasonably assume that information won’t be given to the press. This case is special, officials said. Perhaps, but we hope the next “special case” doesn’t involve releasing the public assistance records of a movie star or a candidate in the midst of a campaign.

But what really compromises Linsky’s investigation is the rationale behind it. Investigating whether benefits were awarded to people who weren’t eligible for them is perfectly appropriate. Investigating whether benefits were awarded to a family whose members subsequently committed a crime is another matter.

According to the state Department of Transitional Assistance, the Tsarnaev family received food stamps between 2002 and 2004 and again from 2009 to 2011. The father, Anzar Tsarnian, received cash benefits for three months in 2003 and nine months beginning in 2011. Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have received benefits through his wife.

In 2002, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect, would have been around 8 years old. Was the clerk supposed to deny the application because, 11 years later, that boy might plant a bomb at the Boston Marathon? If that’s the expectation, Linsky and his colleagues should appropriate money for crystal balls for all offices of the Department of Transitional Assistance.

The same point applies to the later payments. Even if some of them went to the brother who was allegedly “self-radicalized,” it shouldn’t matter. These are income-based programs. The offices that award them have no right to consider the political views of the applicants. They certainly have no right to consider the applicant’s religious preferences

If Linsky’s investigation finds members of the Tsarnaev family received benefits for which they were ineligible at the time, fine. If he finds a pattern of ineligible people receiving benefits, corrective action should be taken.

But “terrorism” – or any criminal actions committed after the fact by recipients of state aid – should have nothing to do with it. State workers administering these programs are not homeland security agents, nor should they be. Appalled or not, Linsky should confine his investigation to the administration of income-based assistance, not turn it into a witch hunt for co-conspirators or alleged enablers of a criminal act.